Film Review: THE UGLY STEPSISTER (2025): A Gruesome and Surprisingly Fascinating Film Undermined by its Heartless Nature
The Ugly Stepsister Review
The Ugly Stepsister (2025) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Emilie Blichfeldt and starring Lea Myren, Ane Dahl Torp, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Isac Calmroth, Malte Gårdinger, Ralph Carlsson, Katarzyna Herman, Adam Lundgren, Willy Ramnek Petri and Philip Lenkowsky.
Emilie Blichfeldt’s wickedly horrific film, The Ugly Stepsister, is a gruesome movie, but an intriguing one if the viewer doesn’t invest too much emotion in the characters. Dire things happen and the fate of the movie’s title character is predetermined by the tone of the movie and the way the story line unfolds with one horrific event occurring after another. Lea Myren stars in the title role as Elvira. Myren doesn’t mind taking brave risks with her performance here which makes the picture all the more wrenching to watch. Towards the end, Elvira’s crawling down the stairs in a last minute attempt to win her Prince Charming, but with cut feet and countless other deformities, one has to admire the character’s ambition. Just don’t feel sorry for her because the movie won’t let you.
There have been countless comparisons of The Ugly Stepsister to the Oscar-nominated film, The Substance, because both movies pull out all the stops. There’s a difference. In The Substance, one sort of sympathized with Demi Moore’s character’s predicament. That’s not the case here. Not at all. Elvira’s stretching to win happiness which the viewer knows she’ll never attain. This new picture has plot details that spin off and build on themes from the classic fairy tale, Cinderella, but the movie’s tone always makes us aware there’ll be no happy endings this time around. Right at the start when a character marries for money and finds out she isn’t getting any, we are aware this is the reality of the world the movie presents and it’s a really, really bleak one at that.
Ane Dahl Torp plays Rebekka, Elvira’s mom who suffers through a series of unfortunate events herself. That’s why Rebekka puts Elvira through the wringer and, alas, Elvira suffers greatly as a result. Rebekka is stepmother to the attractive Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss) and Rebekka becomes a wicked one at that in so many ways. While Elvira takes a tapeworm to get her body in better shape, this movie has a cinematic reason for that that will manifest itself in the most gruesome way you can imagine. Sorry if I am repeating the word “gruesome” but it certainly fits like a glove in regards to the fashion in which the plot is developed here.
Meanwhile, the appropriately slimy role played by Isac Calmroth is one of a true S.O.B. in this movie. As Calmroth’s Prince Julian proves through his actions, the character is simply such a jerk that he isn’t even worthy of Elvira’s affections regardless of how ugly Elvira may be deemed by the masses. There are plastic surgeries that Elvira undergoes which could make you feel sorry for her in another movie, but not this one.
Then there’s the matter of the infamous shoe. You know that glass slipper in the famous aforementioned fairy tale. Well, this movie has its key character cutting her foot to fit the slipper although it’s not a glass one and well, we’re not in Kansas anymore as you’ve probably figured out by now. Oh yeah, wrong fairy tale.
Lea Myren is amazing in terms of keeping her momentum up as Elvira keeps believing in the impossible. It’s a grand performance in a movie that isn’t really looking for things to light up the screen, yet Myren keeps the viewer in awe of the events occurring on-screen nevertheless. Ane Dahl Torp and Thea Sofie Loch Næss more than hold their own beside Myren which makes the movie a tremendously devilish good time in-between nasty bouts of spitting up tapeworms and cutting toes off in the most graphic way one could imagine.
The Ugly Stepsister is a triumph in film-making in one way and, at the same time, a complete insult to what we’ve come to expect from movies that deal with body shaming and body transformations. As Elvira crawls and falls down the stairs near the end, the viewer could be impressed by the quality of the direction or repulsed by the character’s inability to admit defeat. Neither reaction would surprise me. It’s like The Substance, but without the other movie’s sharp, witty edge that keeps us rooting for the character Demi Moore played in that film. In this new movie, you’ll just want Elvira to find peace and forget about her dream to be with the prince already.
Whether you love or hate this new movie, it’s safe to say that it’s going to be garnering a lot of attention and it took a bit of my time to put all my thoughts together about it. Maybe that’s a stamp of true quality in and of itself.
Rating: 7/10
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